Trey Fanjoy, the director behind the mock movie trailer, said that her original idea was to take those stereotypical male roles in film and spin that on its head.

“We wanted to have Miranda and Carrie take on those iconic moments, instead of George Clooney and Brad Pitt, like in Ocean’s Eleven,” Fanjoy told me.

“But then Carrie had all these amazing ideas. She wrote her own treatment, and it was the first time she’d done that. Her initial treatment — with photos — was 11 pages of ideas. And my job as a director was just to interpret and filter those ideas to fit it in the 2:49 minutes we had. Carrie had so much great imagery for me to look at. She threw her whole heart into this.”

From the start, Underwood knew exactly what she wanted to see in this video.

“She wanted to see a high-stakes poker game,” Fanjoy said. “She wanted to see motorcycles. She wanted an explosion, a helicopter scene and a mug shot. Those all came from Carrie.”

In the 15 years Fanjoy has been making award-winning country music videos, she had worked with virtually every artist in Nashville — except Underwood. She remembers just how she felt when Lambert brought up the idea a couple of years ago.

“After we wrapped shooting for Miranda’s ‘Mama’s Broken Heart’
in L.A., she and I went out for drinks,” Fanjoy said. “Miranda was talking about how much she’d love to do something with Carrie. She said, ‘Man, I just love Carrie.’

“When Miranda talked about it that night, I remember thinking how big that would be. And what a moment that would be for country music.”

Lambert has admitted it took her forever to write the email when she sent the song to Underwood.

“Like I was writing a text to a boy or something — ‘We can do this song if you want to, but we don’t have to, but if you like it? But if you don’t like it, it’s cool,’” she recalled writing to Underwood.

Fanjoy seems to love everything about her job as a video director.

“This is my art, but collaborating with other artists is always my favorite part,” she said. “I get to create with a cinematographer, an art director, A-list hair and makeup and wardrobe people. Then I get the opportunity to collaborate with Miranda and Carrie. That was all so amazing, and I’m honored I got to be a part of it.”